Because communications technology has become more advanced and less expensive, and because traveling to meetings has become more expensive and, at times, more risky, meetings are often held long distance in the form of conference calls, video conferences, web-based conferences, and one-on-one telephone calls. These types of meetings will be referred to herein as tele-networking meetings.
For various reasons, not all tele-networking meetings are as productive as they could be. For example, without face-to-face communications, the ability to hold side-bar conversations between two or more participants is limited or not available. Additionally, the ability to caucus in smaller sub-groups of participants is not available. It may be that certain participants are invited to participate but really do not need to be part of the tele-networking meeting, while others need to participate in a listen-only mode. There is no ability to regulate the amount of talk time for participants, either individually or collectively, in order to remain on schedule. Finally, with the increasing availability and use of technology in the workplace and at home, people are more likely to be working on two or more tasks at the same time, often referred to as “multitasking.” Meeting attendees often multitask while participating in a tele-working meeting, thereby potentially reducing the overall productivity of the meeting, or conversely, if a portion of the meeting is not relevant to one or more participants, then those participants may want to multi-task during those non-relevant portions.